Friday, November 21, 2003

In the new Iraq even the Communist Party has adopted the politics of religion.

Karl Marx may have denounced it as the opiate of the masses, but Iraqi communists are promoting religion as a central part of the national fabric.

"We are a country where the absolute majority are Muslims and we cannot ignore the fact that Islam could be in many ways important for us," said Minister of Culture Mofeed al-Jazaeri.

Jazaeri, a member of the Communist Party's politburo, says the priority for Iraq today is not the secular separation of religion and state, but promoting a culture of democracy that accommodates Iraq's delicate ethnic and religious mix.

"We are trying to create a new democratic Iraq," he told Reuters in an interview.